Oklahoma Sooners: What we learned 111713

1. Oklahoma State can win the big one: Mike Gundy's team went to Austin, Texas, knowing a loss knocks it out of the Big 12 title picture. It didn't have top playmaker Josh Stewart. But the Cowboys had a sound plan for shutting down the Longhorns on both sides of the ball, and they executed it very well. OSU held a Texas team that was 6-0 in the league to a season-low 13 points and handed coach Mack Brown his most lopsided home loss (38-13) in his Texas tenure. As Gundy put it after the win: This is playoff football. Win one game and the next one gets bigger. Oklahoma State won what might've been the Big 12 semifinals on Saturday. Now the Cowboys get a de facto conference title game at home next Saturday against Baylor and are in firm control of their own destiny.

Tim Heitman/USA TODAY SportsLevi Norwood scored two TDs, as Baylor rallied for a big win against Texas Tech on Saturday.

2. What's it gonna take to beat Baylor? The Bears kindly spotted Texas Tech a 20-7 lead in the first quarter with Tech touchdown drives of 75, 89 and 75 yards. Baylor punted on two of its first three drives. Normally a start like that spells disaster for even good teams. But Baylor got back to moving the ball and took a 21-20 lead at the end of the first quarter that it never relinquished in a 63-34 victory. And the Bears did all that without Lache Seastrunk, Glasco Martin or Tevin Reese on offense. Even when this team is beating itself, it's still hard to beat.

3. Kansas finally tastes sweet victory: If you don't understand why Jayhawks fans ripped down the South end zone goal posts after KU's 31-19 home win over West Virginia, you don't recognize how much agony this fan base has had to endure in the past few seasons. Kansas won its first Big 12 game since Nov. 6, 2010, and got coach Charlie Weis his first conference win by pounding the rock against a banged-up WVU defense. Unless Kansas loses every Big 12 game from now until the end of the 2016 season, it appears the Jayhawks will not be the ones to break Baylor's record of 29 consecutive conference losses -- at least not for a long time.

4. Welcome back, OU run game: It's getting a little tiresome to constantly fluctuate between the narratives of "Oklahoma has no identity" and "Oklahoma found its identity!" this season, so why don't we just stick to the facts: The Sooners ran the ball well against Iowa State, winning a 48-10 game that was much closer early on. As a team, OU rushed for 405 yards on 44 carries, and 390 came in the game's final three quarters. The trio of Damien Williams, Brennan Clay and backup QB Trevor Knight combined for 337 yards. Going 2-to-1 on the run-pass ratio did the job this week against the Cyclones. That ISU team is also a bit of a mess at this point, so maybe it's safer -- for now -- to hold off on saying OU made some grand discovery in its run game.

5. TCU's nightmare season is almost over: The two newest members of the Big 12 are both now 4-7 and will not go bowling. But we expected West Virginia to take a step back in 2013 after basically overhauling its entire offense. The Big 12 media believed TCU would be the No. 3 team in the league this fall. Wrong on that one. For the third time this season, the Horned Frogs lost a game by three points or fewer. They've lost by more than two TDs only once. They've had bad luck and bad injuries. It's just not their year. TCU finishes with a visit from Baylor in two weeks, and Gary Patterson will have his players treating that one like their bowl game.